Tag: Florida
New Doubts About Florida Win in 2000: Jeb’s Own Poll Showed Gore Ahead
A new book will likely show Florida was no redder in 2000 than Ohio was in 2004.
The new poll showed that Gore had pulled ahead by at least one percentage point. Even among white males the Texas governor was struggling.
Some dramatic new details about Jeb Bush and the final weeks of the 2000 presidential election in Florida are coming out in the new book One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century, by Tom Hamburger and (former St. Petersburg Times reporter) Peter Wallsten.
It seems Gov. Bush was a lot more worried about Al Gore’s Florida prospects than the Bush-Cheney campaign team in Austin, Texas, and became mighty frustrated that Karl Rove wasn’t listening to him seriously enough and taking his advice on Florida strategy.
“Something’s got to give,” Jeb Bush said at one tense meeting in the governor’s mansion with Bush-Cheney strategists, including Ken Mehlman and Chris Henick. “You guys are not listening.”
From the book: “In the final week, Jeb took matters into his own hands, ordering the state Republican Party to commission its own poll using his campaign’s Washington firm, Public Opinion Strategies. The new poll showed that Gore had pulled ahead by at least one percentage point. Even among white males the Texas governor was struggling. Sally Bradshaw, Jeb’s chief of staff, took the results to her boss.
“What do we do with these numbers?” she asked.
Jeb directed Bradshaw to call Austin immediately. But instead of moving swiftly to deal with the apparent erosion of support, Rove and his brain trust were furious that Jeb and his team had done a poll on their own. Campaign officials believed their numbers were better. The conversation grew so tense that at one point Bradshaw called Rove a jerk.
On Election Day, when the Florida problem finally became clear to Rove, Bradshaw advised him to pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into phone calls, especially in the conservative Panhandle, to mobilize voters.
Katherine Harris is Off the Chain: Helps Herself to Campaign Funds for Home Renovations
We have to find something else for Katherine Harris to do after she loses her Florida senate race because she’s just too entertaining. Right when you think she can’t top herself, the woman pulls out another shocker.
This time…well here, see for yourself.
“I have never heard of a candidate taking money out of a campaign coffer like it’s an ATM”
Katherine Harris gave her campaign more than $3 million to run for Senate, but then took back $100,000 to finish renovating her “historic home in Washington, D.C.” her campaign revealed…
One of Harris’ many former campaign managers summed the situation up best.
“I have never heard of a candidate taking money out of a campaign coffer like it’s an ATM. It absolutely boggles my mind,” said former Harris campaign manager Jim Dornan. “This is a woman who has completely lost touch with reality. You don’t take your campaign contributors’ money, whether it’s yours or not, and spend it to renovate your house. This is absolutely insane.”
Sen. Bill Nelson’s folks were equally astounded by Harris’ bold and unerring ability to do the wrong thing.
Nelson’s campaign manager Chad Clanton was almost speechless when he heard about the report.
“I don’t know what to say. It’s just another bizarre chapter in the Katherine Harris campaign,” he said.
And remember the hooey a few months ago about putting all her worldly wealth — um, $10 million, not $3 million — into the campaign?
Harris told John Donvan, of “Nightline,” that she intends to sell all her personal assets to fund the race. “My husband has real estate, but I will not own anything.”
Since making a pledge last week to put $10 million of her money into the race, Harris has made the phrase “putting everything on the line” a new campaign theme.
“I am willing to take this widow’s mite, this pearl of great price, and put everything on the line,” she told Donvan. “No matter how much you have, are you willing to take what you have and sell it all for a great price?”
On second thought, maybe not…
Harris announced on national television that she would spend $10 million of her own money on the race, but Friday’s press release referred to the money as a loan.
Wake Up Rove, Coulter: War Protests No Longer Considered Unpatriotic
Sometimes you really don’t need a weatherman — or a pollster — to see which way the wind’s blowing. Support for the United States’ war in Iraq has come full circle in St. Augustine, Fla., the “Nation�s Oldest City.”
Instead of being flipped off, war protestors are being high-fived
Protests have taken place weekly or monthly since before the invasion and occupation, from the time Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, and Rice began beating the drums of war. In the beginning the protestors got flipped off. Now they’re being high-fived.
Now, in the fourth year of protests, the reaction demonstrators are getting is overwhelming positive, they say…
In the two hours the protesters spent under the hot sun Saturday, the number of people who screamed pro-Bush phrases and hateful words could be counted on one hand. The number of approving honks, thumbs up, thank yous, smiles and words of encouragement were in the hundreds.
“There’s another whole sector that’s changed their minds in the last six months,” [71-year-old protestor Pattie] Hunt said.
Still, protesting is oldster territory in my adopted hometown, and I suspect, in the larger environs. Younger people seem content, for whatever reason, to leave the heavy lifting to others.
“Most people are not supporting the war and not supporting Bush, but they’re not coming out,” [56-year-old Barbara] Mitchell said.
The protesters, who are mostly ages 50 to 80, said they keep showing up at the peace rallies to make their message seen, make someone stop and think, or even encourage someone to start a conversation with those near them about Bush and the war in Iraq.
[St. Augustine People for Peace and Justice] member Anne Galloway, 60, who also protested during the Vietnam war, said, “No one expects immediate gratification out here. I know there’s not a whole lot I can actually do, but I can do this.”
Nearby, Sue Davis, 54, held a sign reading “Honorable soldiers. Dishonorable ‘leader.'” Her son is in the military and is expected to be leaving for Iraq soon.
The Curse of Joe’s Dead Intern is Upon Katherine Harris
This wasn’t any old Joe.
It was Joe Scarborough, host of the prime-time MSNBC show Scarborough Country and a former Pensacola Republican congressman who was courted last summer by national Republicans to run against Harris. But before he could announce he wouldn’t, Harris called major donors and suggested Scarborough would have to answer questions about the strange death of a former staff member in 2001, according to two former high-level Harris staff members, a GOP donor and Scarborough.
”This [story] encapsulates everything wrong with her as a candidate,” Dornan said”That was the first clue that something wasn’t right with Katherine Harris,” Scarborough told The Miami Herald in a recent interview, noting that a medical examiner found his staff member’s death was natural and not the result of foul play.
…Since then, Harris has been dogged by her connections to an indicted defense contractor and by heavy staff turnover from last fall through Thursday, when five top aides announced their departure a day after her spokesman quit. Her campaign had issued a news release Wednesday suggesting only spokesman Chris Ingram was leaving.
In explaining his decision to leave, campaign manager Glenn Hodas echoed predecessors Jamie Miller and Jim Dornan. Miller had said the campaign wasn’t good for Harris’ health. Dornan said Harris had been erratic, temperamental and sometimes unfair — and tried to blame him for the ”Joe’s dead intern” story when a furious Scarborough called, demanding to know what happened.
”This [story] encapsulates everything wrong with her as a candidate,” Dornan said. ‘She reacted without thinking. She made stuff up. She called people she had no business calling. And when confronted with the insanity of her — I use this term lightly — `strategy,’ she denied it and tried to blame someone else.”
Another One Bites the Katherine Harris Dust
Yet another Katherine Harris spokesperson has torn his hair out and high-tailed it.
Harris has had three campaign managers since getting into the race last summer, and has seen turnover in every key position
Rep. Katherine Harris’ communications director for her Senate campaign is resigning, the latest in staff turnover that has plagued the Republican’s effort to unseat Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.
“I wish Katherine Harris the best, and it’s been a pleasure working for her,” campaign spokesman Chris Ingram said Wednesday. “It’s been an experience.”
“It’s been an experience.” I like that. Sounds kind of like, “Have a day,” or “It’s been real.” Go Chris.
You might recognize poor Chris as the one who’s had to defend Harris when she claimed Democratic House members from Florida were winking and nodding at her that wanted her to beat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson this fall. Chris said it was all true, even though Harris could produce no specifics. He also backed her up when she tossed out a bogus line about Nelson accepting bribe money in response to a question about her own transgressions.
Meanwhile another Harris alum, Jim Dornan, keeps saying she’s nutso. The question is, how many more will make the inevitable dash for the parking lot with Chris?
Ingram, part of a new team put together after Harris’ core campaign staff quit this spring, didn’t talk further about the decision�
The same release added, “Contrary to earlier reports, Harris has only accepted the resignation of Chris Ingram,” an apparent attempt to downplay reports that other key staff members, including campaign manager Glenn Hodas and field director Pat Thomas, will also resign.
Hodas and Thomas didn’t immediately return calls.
Harris has had three campaign managers since getting into the race last summer, and has seen turnover in every key position.
Jeb Keeps Picking Loser Christians
Jeb Bush might be wondering how the godly could get him in so much trouble. First he had to call for the resignation of his appointee as secretary of the Department of Corrections after a string of scandals that make former FEMA head Michael Brown look like he really DID a heck of a job.
“I need political influence in order to obtain the things that I think that I need to obtain for the Lord, Jesus Christ”
Under James Crosby’s DOC, Floridians have watched steroid abuse among prison guards while they lived in state housing and pilfered state supplies and vehicles; rapes of female inmates; fatal beatings of a prisoner in 1999 and a teenage boot camper this year; kickbacks from privatized prison vendors; and an investigation by the FBI.
But Jeb said when he explained to Crosby earlier this year that things must calm down soon or else he would need his resignation, the man was downright pious.
“If you’ve done something wrong, tell me now and I’ll ask for your resignation,” Bush recounted his talk with Crosby. “Lead or get out of the way. This is an important department.”
Crosby said he wanted to pray about it and discuss it with his family.
Aw, isn’t that nice? What a guy. Crosby surrendered yesterday in Jacksonville, citing alcohol abuse as the reason for his rotten-to-the-core leadership. He faces eight years in prison and the loss of his state pension.
But that’s not the only area where things have gone south for Jeb and the lordly. We recently reported that the Rev. O’Neal Dozier, Jeb’s man in the black Republican community, was in trouble for making slurs about Islam on the radio. Now the gov has asked for his resignation from his Jeb-appointed post on the judicial nominating committee of Broward County.
[Dozier’s] views, criticized by Muslims, will mean his political involvement may be less influential, which he sees as a regrettable consequence to his primary mission.
“I need political influence in order to obtain the things that I think that I need to obtain for the Lord, Jesus Christ,” he said Tuesday, two days after turning in his resignation…
“If you look at the Quran, all the way from the beginning to the end it speaks of evil and violence,” Dozier said.
And so, you see, in that respect it differs starkly from the Bible, which does not have a blood sacrifice, war, stoning, salt-turning, plague, crucifixion, or four riders of the apocalypse on every other page. But there’s a bigger lesson for Dozier, according to Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“He might take a look at his Bible again and see what Jesus what would do in these circumstances,” Hooper said. “I doubt that Jesus, peace be upon him, would seek to increase divisions and hostilities in the society in which he lived. Jesus preached love and respect, not hatred and mistrust.”
Is Katherine Harris Looking for a Way to Bail from Her Campaign?
Delicate subject: Believe me, the last thing I ever wanted to write about was Katherine Harris’ ovaries. And as much as I don’t like her politics or personality, I would not wish physical illness on her or anyone else.
But the latest announcement from her campaign that she will undergo surgery July 17 to remove an “ovarian mass” got me wondering whether that could provide a convenient excuse to withdraw from the Senate race and avoid a certain shellacking by Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. It would seem to provide an unassailable reason to abandon what has been a mess of a campaign without losing too much face.
But then again, given Harris’ proclivity to tell tall tales and do the inappropriate, she could turn it into a whacky play for sympathy votes. I mean, that sounds bad, but the woman certainly seems capable of chasing off down the rabbit hole to her alternate version of reality at the drop of a hat.
In the meantime, let’s hope her surgery goes well and her ovarian mass is benign. Then she won’t have any excuse for avoiding the pounding at the polls she so richly deserves.
Fruit Rotting in Florida Thanks to Immigration Threats
Tough talk about immigration reform is hurting the Florida citrus industry. Fruit is going left unpicked, thanks to rumors about INS crack-downs.
Word had spread through the Hispanic community to return home if they want U.S. jobs in the future
As many as 6-million boxes of oranges may go unharvested in Florida this year because of a shortage of fruit pickers made worse by fears about what changes may come in immigration law.
The citrus season usually ends in late June, but will extend to at least late July this year with juice processors hoping to get as many oranges as possible off trees…
Orange production in the state could become the lowest since 1992…
Growers have reported difficulty finding enough workers. Industry officials say labor supply was tight from the beginning of the season in October, but grew worse by the middle of May when a large segment of the Hispanic labor force seemed to leave the state…
Lake Wales citrus grower Marty McKenna said word had spread through the Hispanic community to return home if they wanted U.S. jobs in the future.
But inflaming us-against-them emotions seemed like such a good idea at the time. Bush’s polls were down and gay marriage was starting to wane as a sure-fire firing-up mechanism. Who would have thought Big Agriculture would suffer in the end? We’ll just add a failed Florida citrus season to the list of unintended consequences the Bush administration couldn’t possibly see coming.
Jeb Tries to Disown Nutjob Crony After Islam Slurs
Momma always said to watch who you hang around with: Jeb Bush is recoiling like a man who discovered a snake under a rock after anti-Muslim comments on a Florida radio show from his faithful Repug beard in the black community.
Jeb wasted no time yelling, “Ho-lee shee-it!”
The always-good-for-a-shocker Rev. O’Neal Dozier is at it again, this time venting his spleen not on gay people but on Muslims.
God’s man in South Florida says he doesn’t want a mosque in his neighborhood, because Those People are terrorists and their religion is a cult. But you, not being a Man or Woman of God, couldn’t be expected to know that.
”I don’t look for everyone to believe what I believe, because everyone is not as astute about religion as I am,” said Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach. ”That’s my life.”
Right ho. Still, some people feel the good rev should have devoted a little more study to the matter.
…Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida Chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, said he has tried unsuccessfully to meet with Dozier.
”I want a chance to respond and refute these accusations,” Ali said Friday. ”It appears that he doesn’t have that much knowledge about Islam.”
Jeb, who appointed Dozier to the powerful Broward County Judicial Nominating Commission to help select county and circuit court judges, wasted no time yelling, “Ho-lee shee-it!”
On Friday, Gov. Bush’s office issued a statement distancing him from Dozier.
”Gov. Bush in no way shares Rev. Dozier’s views on Islam,” said Alia Faraj, Bush’s spokeswoman.
Of course, it suited Jeb fine until now for Dozier to be a nutcase in other areas.
In the past, Dozier has asked Gov. Bush’s appointments to the Broward circuit and county courts if they were ”God-fearing,” and inquired about their parenting abilities.
